Chimera, a Chinese-linked hacker group, infiltrated the network of the Dutch semiconductor giant NXP and had access for over two years from late 2017 to the beginning of 2020, reports NRC.
During this period, the notorious hackers reportedly stole intellectual property, including chip designs — the full extent of the theft is yet to be disclosed.
The attack bears all of the hallmarks of the Chimera hacking group, including the use of its ChimeRAR hacker tool.
To break into NXP, the hackers initially used credentials from previous data leaks on platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook and then used brute force attacks to guess the passwords.
NXP is a major player in the global semiconductor market and has been particularly influential after it acquired Freescale (an American company) in 2015.
However, even though it confirmed the theft of its intellectual property, NXP says that the breach did not result in material damage — saying that the data stolen is complex enough that it can’t be easily used to replicate designs.
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